Raising Hell

by Ronin Ro

  When Def Jam released Public Enemy’s debut in March 1987, it turned out Russell was right. Influential radio DJ Mr. Magic told his WBLS audience he objected to P.E.’s song title “Mi Uzi Weighs a Ton.” Magic also smashed a copy of their single “Public Enemy No. 1” on the air, and promised, “No more music by these suckers.”

  But D.M.C.’s support was unwavering. “I would bang all their records twenty-four-seven,” D recalled. “Everything Chuck and them made.” He’d also memorized every word on the album. “That shit was mean. And it wasn’t ‘social’ to me. That was dope-ass rapping. One rhyme went: ‘Run in the room hang it on the wall in re membrance that I rocked them all! Suckers! Punks!’ He knew slang! And he was the educated college motherfucker—dope. I thought he was better than me and Run. Way better than Run-D.M.C.”

  Jam Master Jay also loved Chuck’s music, and kept telling everyone “P.E. No. 1” was his “number one favorite joint,” Hank Shocklee recalled. And after DJ Doctor Dre dubbed them a copy, the Beasties played it too.

  The few music critics that reviewed the album described it as political and “controversial,” but D.M.C. and Jam Master Jay appreciated it first as hip-hop music: “The beats, Chuck’s flow, Flavor Flav,” said D.M.C. “Actually, Chuck D and them made me step up my game. Made me get a little better.”

  Everywhere he went D.M.C. played songs like “Too Much Posse,” which had sidekick Flavor Flav describing his gang over earsplitting drums, or “You’re Going to Get Yours,” where Chuck described fleeing from police in his Oldsmobile. “I thought it was so cool,” D continued. “You don’t understand. There were the records I heard on radio but then I heard ‘Sophisticated Bitch’ on the album. I was like ‘Oh shit! This motherfucker—! Oh my God, what’s this? Damn, I have to step up my game, man. This shit is like killing me.’”

  The Together Forever tour continued into summer 1987, and Run-D.M.C. couldn’t help but notice that relations between the Beastie Boys and Def Jam, to which Run-D.M.C. hoped to sign, were deteriorating because of the proposed Beastie Boys movie Scared Stupid. And when the tour reached Hollywood, things got even worse. Executives at Universal Pictures met with the Beasties and said they’d be willing to film their proposed haunted-house movie for $4 million, a budget large enough to pay for decent special effects. “Rick Rubin was like, ‘If you make a movie without me, then you can’t have any of the music,’” Adam Dubin recalled. “Almost like what Profile was pulling on Run-D.M.C. with Tougher Than Leather. And Universal came back and said, ‘Well if we can’t make a Beastie Boy movie with music then we don’t want to make a Beastie Boy movie.’ It killed the deal right there.”

  Already, L.L. Cool J was suing Rick and Russell. In court, L.L.’s lawyer battled to have a judge void L.L.’s contracts with Def Jam and Rush Management, and order Rick and Russell to pay $1.5 million the lawyer claimed both companies owed L.L. for his first two albums Radio and Bigger and Deffer. “They put out the first L.L. record without a contract,” L.L.’s attorney at the time, Joseph Giaimo, told a reporter.

  The court decided in L.L.’s favor, author Jory Farr reported in his book Moguls and Madmen: The Pursuit of Power in Popular Music. L.L.’s attorney, Farr wrote, had the contract shelved, and Def Jam paid L.L. $1.5 million. Inspired by L.L.’s triumph over Def Jam, the Beasties hired their own attorney, Ken Anderson.

  In June 1987, two months after Rick Rubin finally pronounced Yo! Bum Rush the Show a flop, Run, D, and Jay were about to board a flight at New York’s Kennedy Airport. They were going to join the Beastie Boys—whose relationship with Rick and Russell was growing increasingly strained—in Europe for a few dates on the Together Forever tour. Michael Jackson wanted to record with Run-D.M.C., but D recalled, “we went on tour and said ‘Fuck Michael’ like it wasn’t ignorant of us. We were just having fun. Break up the tour to do the record? Nah, that’s all right. And it wasn’t an ego thing. It’s like ‘We’d rather go to London to do the show, man.’”

  However, the tour wasn’t as carefree and fun-loving as earlier tours had been. While reporters from various newspapers described the tour and the Beasties and Run-D.M.C. sharing stages as promoting an image of racial unity, both groups concealed their disappointment with where their careers had gone. The Beasties—angered over what Rick and Russell offered for Scared Stupid—now had an attorney looking into ways to get the white trio off Def Jam Records. Run-D.M.C. were having their own share of difficulties with their own record label, Profile Records. Profile and Def Jam continued to battle over whether the songs Run-D.M.C. recorded for inclusion in the movie Tougher Than Leather would appear on a new Run-D.M.C. album for Profile, or on a Tougher Than Leather movie sound track released by Def Jam. Run meanwhile struggled with depression and doubts about the new material. To Run’s ears, it had begun to sound dated, since editing Tougher Than Leather continued months after Rick Rubin completed filming, and new rap acts were emerging every day to take the rap genre into new directions and attract Run-D.M.C. fans to these new acts’ own albums, singles, and music videos.

  Before they boarded their flight at the Pan Am terminal, Chuck D and Hank Shocklee arrived to see them off and play them P.E.’s newest song, “Rebel Without a Pause.” Chuck and Hank loved Run-D.M.C.’s music and came to the airport to ask their favorite group for their opinion of P.E.’s new direction.

  Run-D.M.C. were blown away. Like Eric B and Rakim’s hit “I Know You Got Soul,” Chuck’s new lyric was set to a fusion of two James Brown–produced beats: in this case, “Funky Drummer” and a clarinet on J.B.’s “The Grunt” that evoked a siren. During a bridge, Chuck’s DJ, Terminator X, blurred a noisy guitar chord and mixed a little-known Chubb Rock single (“Rock and Roll”). “Oh my God,” D remembered thinking. “You thought his first shit bugged us out? Yo, we heard that shit and got nervous. That was like the best record we ever heard.”

  Jay was just as impressed. The number of bass drums P.E. piled on “Funky Drummer” astounded him. “Too many, man,” Jay later said. “They were trying to outdo us, that’s what it was.”

  Instead of trying to be Run-D.M.C. or L.L., Chuck’s lyrics were as smooth as those by literate newcomers Rakim and KRS-One. “‘Yes! The rhythm the rebel! Without a pause!’” D.M.C. quoted. “That shit was terrifying! Evil! Fucking Armageddon; the end of the world.”

  Chuck told them he wanted Def Jam to release “Rebel” immediately, as the B-side to their single “You’re Going to Get Yours,” but Russell opposed the idea. Since Rick Rubin was working with rock bands, creating a sound track for the motion picture Less Than Zero, Russell had more say in what happened at Def Jam Records. “Russell wanted the songs off of Yo! Bum Rush the Show to sell the album,” Chuck recalled. Chuck disagreed; he felt Yo! Bum Rush the Show would not sell any more copies and that it was time for P.E. to present rap fans with an exciting new sound.

  Run, D.M.C., and Jam Master Jay agreed with Chuck’s decision to try something new. “We said, “Yo, y’all motherfuckers got to put that out now,’” said D.M.C. Chuck agreed, but didn’t know how to persuade Russell to change his mind. Chuck and Hank followed Run-D.M.C. to the door of the plane. “And then Run turned around and said, ‘Yo, man, just do it,’” Chuck remembered. Chuck and Hank ignored Russell’s decision to not release “Rebel Without a Pause” immediately and went over his head, to executives at Def Jam’s parent company, CBS. CBS executives heard the song, Chuck continued, and decided Russell was wrong. Without consulting Russell, Chuck claimed, CBS worked on including “Rebel Without a Pause” on the B-side of P.E.’s next Def Jam single, “You’re Going to Get Yours.” Fourteen days later, Public Enemy saw “Rebel Without a Pause” arrive in record stores and change the direction and sound of rap music. Russell, Chuck claimed, did not even know the song was in record stores until radio stations began to play it on the radio.

  The Together Forever tour arrived in Europe, to English reporters who wrote stories describing the Beasties as the most unruly pack since the punk band the Sex Pist
ols. It was the first major tour that the Beasties had played in Europe, and Russell, along for the ride, worked to keep the group in the headlines by manufacturing publicity stunts. “Run-D.M.C. was huge,” Ad explained. “And we were all at some weird Swiss rock festival and were like, ‘Well how can we [purposely] fuck this up?’” Russell told MCA to cross the crowded party and punch Jam Master Jay in the face. MCA did as told, and Jay—who had agreed to participate in the publicity stunt—swung back. “That was Russell being a manager trying to create some excitement,” said D.M.C. “Because [reporters] were mad we were there, Russell was like, ‘All right, we’re gonna give them what they want.’” But they really had to hit each other, D noted. “It was some stupid high drunk shit, too.”

  When in Europe, Run-D.M.C. inspired the Beasties to improve their stage show. “We showed them how to put their shit in order, because they were wild, all over the place,” said D. “We showed them how to rap to the crowd and not worry about dancing and being corny and to use the whole stage. They learned, ‘Okay, I see on certain records D will stand there and fold his arms. So we’ll throw the beer on this record and bring the bitches out on that one,’ as opposed to just being unorganized.”

  Run-D.M.C.’s approach, said Ad Rock, was better than Russell’s. “Russell tried to make some suggestions about what we should do onstage and we didn’t really listen.” He couldn’t remember specifics but “everything he said was nuts. He wanted to be as berserk as possible.”

  Between shows in Europe, Russell kept manufacturing publicity stunts to keep the group in the headlines. If Russell wasn’t staging a fake fistfight, Ad recalled, then every group member joined a crowd turning a parked automobile onto its side. The Beasties, already unhappy with Rick over the aborted Scared Stupid deal with Universal Pictures, became even unhappier about being perceived as a pop group (anathema to punk rockers) and with how Rick and Russell were controlling their image and encouraging them to act rowdy. But Russell, delighted with newspaper headlines, continued to include the white trio in outrageous publicity stunts. “We got on the cover of every paper all over the world,” Russell later said of his campaign of publicity stunts. “The Beasties did it ’cause it was fun. I did it because it would make us money.”

  These antics drew rowdy fans to concerts. During one show in Liverpool, audience members spit on the heads of two bald security guards near the front of the stage, then started throwing beer cans at the group. The Beasties said, “Cool out” and “Don’t throw shit,” but the crowd started hurling cans. To avoid being hit, Ad Rock swung a baseball bat, knocking the cans aside.

  After the show, deranged fans demolished everything onstage. Back in their hotel in London, Liverpool police arrived to arrest Ad Rock, since a woman in the Liverpool audience claimed one of the beer cans he had knocked aside struck her in the face. “It was total bullshit,” said photographer Ricky Powell, who joined the Beasties on tour. “She was eighty feet back!” Regardless, Ad Rock spent a night or two in jail. After Ad Rock’s release, the Beasties were accosted by a female autograph seeker when they were leaving their hotel. Beastie Boy MCA said, “I’m sorry, we have to go.” The woman replied, “If you don’t give me an autograph right now, I’m going to stitch you up in the press.”

  MCA told her, “Fuck you,” before getting into the waiting car and leaving.

  The next morning’s Daily Mirror headline claimed, “Pop Idols Sneer at Dying Kids.” Because of the scornful woman’s fictitious claim, England’s Parliament wanted the Beastie Boys expelled from the country.

  The Beasties finished the tour, returned to America, and took umbrage at Def Jam asking them to enter the studio to record something new for an album called Kick It: Def Jam Sampler. The Beasties wanted to take a break and relax with big royalty checks for their historic 4-million-selling debut Licensed to Ill. “So, October hit, time to get paid, no check,” Beastie Boy Mike D remembered. The group called Def Jam to ask why, and were told, “We’re not paying you till you go back in the studio and make a new record.”

  “We’re going to make another record,” Mike remembered telling Def Jam, “but we sold these records. You know, you got to pay. That’s just the way it works.”

  “Well, we’re not paying you,” a Def Jam executive (Mike D never specified who) told them. “We think the group’s breaking up; that’s it.”

  The Beasties and their attorney, Ken Anderson, assured Def Jam that the Beasties were not disbanding and were not trying to renege on the terms of their contract with Def Jam, but the record label didn’t believe the group and refused to pay royalties for Licensed to Ill.

  The Beasties refused to record. Def Jam’s parent company, CBS, complained about the delay in getting a follow-up to the best-selling rap album of all time out to fans. Rick Rubin claimed CBS withheld royalties for the Beasties and every Def Jam artist because, by failing to provide a second Beasties album, Def Jam had breached its own contract with CBS. “That’s why I couldn’t pay them,” Rick claimed, and why CBS told Rick, “You don’t get paid on anything because you lost the Beastie Boys record.”

  The Beasties wanted to talk things over with Def Jam, but, Ad claimed, Rick and Russell didn’t want to hear it. When the Beasties met with each other to discuss Def Jam, Ad claimed, they learned that Rick and Russell “were trying to play us against each other. They were like, ‘Aw, you know, he’s crazy, he’s making all these demands, MCA is this. Mike doesn’t do this.’ They would get us alone and talk shit. I don’t know if that’s a plan Rick and Russell had ahead of time, but that’s what happened.”

  As Def Jam delayed in paying royalties, and as Universal backed out of producing Scared Stupid, “We were like, ‘Fuck these guys,’” Ad remembered of Def Jam. Until now, Anderson seemed to have been trying to negotiate a deal with Universal for Scared Stupid; then the lawyer gave the group advice on how to respond to Rick Rubin’s offer of a certain percentage of profits for a movie with Def Pictures; then October arrived and Anderson told the group Def Jam was delaying in paying royalties. Anderson then tried to inform Def Jam that the Beastie Boys were not disbanding. Now Anderson finally told Def Jam that the Beastie Boys were leaving the label. Def Jam’s lawyers maintained that the Beasties had breached their contract by not recording a second album. Russell was to blame, Ad Rock claimed, since he had kept them touring for almost eleven months. “If your manager is the owner of your record label and puts you on tour, you can’t physically go into the studio.”

  The Beasties were not the only artists questioning their deals with Def Jam and Rush Management. Rapper Slick Rick, who signed to both companies as a solo rapper in 1986, said it “seemed like a conflict of interest. First you’re signed to a record label, that’s Def Jam; then your manager happens to be Russell Simmons, who is also involved with Def Jam. So now, you’re forced to give up all of these different percentages for every little thing you do.”

  The Beasties grew tired of debating with Rick and Russell and in October had Ken Anderson file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit that alleged “breach of contract,” “breach of fiduciary duty,” and—like L.L. Cool J, whose victory inspired the group’s decision to sue—nonpayment of millions of dollars in royalties. “We alleged they did a lot of other things in addition to not paying royalties,” Anderson told the media, including structuring deals to “benefit themselves rather than the Beastie Boys.”

  One of the Beasties soon told their DJ, Hurricane, “We didn’t get our fucking money, and we just sold a couple of million records.” Hurricane then visited Russell’s apartment at 111 Barrow Street, a block away from Def Jam, and in the same building where Jam Master Jay also rented a loft, to talk about the situation. Hurricane remembered the beleaguered Russell telling him, “Yo, if we go to court, Hurricane, remember that MCA was in my house walking around talking about he wasn’t going to make a record again, just in case I need you.”

  Hurricane thought, “Man, I ain’t going to court.”

  “No one really knew wh
at was going to happen next,” Hurricane explained.

  “Ultimately, the Beastie Boys got everything they wanted and then some,” Ken Anderson later told writer Jory Farr: Def Jam let them go, paid them money they were owed (after Def Jam executives had claimed they couldn’t, since CBS had delayed in paying it to the label), gave the Beasties their master recordings, and returned publishing rights.

  Chapter 22

  Suing Profile

  The Beasties’ battle against Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin slowed Run-D.M.C.’s momentum. “Whatever was happening was happening,” Run said coldly. As it was, “everything got confusing” in their own career because though the movie was being edited, Profile opposed the idea of Run-D.M.C. on a Def Jam sound track, and management hinted that Run-D.M.C. should sue their own label. Run waited, thinking, “When is the next time I can do something incredible?”

  In November 1987, Run-D.M.C. sued Profile Records. Run-D.M.C. was supposed to deliver Tougher Than Leather to Profile by then, but Rush Management started arguing with Profile over the extension of Run-D.M.C.’s contract, Doctor Dre remembered. “Basically they wanted to get out of their contract, and Cory said, and I quote, ‘Run-D.M.C. will never record a record for Def Jam.’ And he was right.”

  Russell had had no idea back in 1983 that he would be able to form his own record label or that he would sign a distribution deal with market leader CBS Records. There weren’t as many rap labels and majors telling people, “Yeah, I’ll let you make a rap label and be part of this big industry,” Dre explained. At the same time, the major labels he contacted had all rejected “It’s Like That.” Only Profile wanted Run-D.M.C. “It wasn’t a bad deal based on what it was—Cory and them were getting the records out where they needed to be. It was a bad deal based on what the future held for Run-D.M.C. And they locked them into a seven-album deal and couldn’t get out.”